Irvine, Calif. — Western Digital subsidiary WD has expanded its prosumer personal Cloud drive line with the My Cloud EX2, a two-bay network attached storage (NAS) system with capacities up to 8TB.
The My Cloud EX2 joins the existing four-bay My Cloud EX4 in a line aimed at creative professionals and prosumers.
The unit comes preconfigured in RAID 1 mode to protect data out of the box but is easily configurable into other data-protection modes such as USB, Cloud or LAN/WAN backup, the company said.
The drive can be used to centralize and back up all of a user’s computers with included WD SmartWare Pro software for PC users, and Apple Time Machine backup software for Mac users.
My Cloud EX2 options include a diskless enclosure that allows users to build their own NAS with the drives of their choice, as well as populated systems in 4TB, 6TB or 8TB capacities.
Users can also attach compatible USB 3.0 hard drives to the USB expansion ports on the unit to expand storage capacity. The populated drives feature WD Red hard drives powered by NASware 2.0 technology, which is said to improve drive reliability and protect data in the event of a power loss or disruption.
Using the free WD My Cloud mobile app, users can view photos, stream video and share, save and manage files from anywhere on any iOS or Android device. The app integrates major public Cloud services including Dropbox, SkyDrive4 and Google Drive.
The EX2 also includes advanced data-serving options including an integrated file server, FTP server, backup server and a P2P download server. Users can also stream videos and photos to connected TVs, media players, gaming consoles and other DLNA/UPnP devices with the included Twonky 7.2 server, DLNA-certified 1.5 media server and built-in iTunes server.
The My Cloud EX2 is currently available with a street price of $199 for the diskless My Cloud EX2, $369 for 4TB, $469 for 6TB and $569 for 8TB. The WD My Cloud mobile app currently is available free from the App Store and Google Play.
